Author note: For those interested in what happened to that Guidar ship. Don't worry, there will be a little bit about it still.
--
Greldo hummed happily, his hands wrapped around the helm of the Nocturna as they flew through another abandoned branch.
Seven months had passed since Dahlia’s second self had returned, most of which they had used to travel away from the edge of the Langost Branch. Sometimes they traveled through the shadowrealm, sometimes through the branch itself, searching for signs of Chained fleets, Shadow Oculithar, or his favorite, small chunks of the ancient Shadow Realm.
The latter of which was what he was sensing now.
I think it’s at least a few hundred feet this time, he thought as he felt something resonate in the depths of the shadowrealm, almost in the center of the branch. A branch that wasn’t as cold as it should be.
“I still don’t sense an Exit Portal we could open.”
Greldo looked to the side where one of Dahlia’s selves stood, arms crossed and frowning into the distance. Her dark hair, tied into a tight ponytail, had a band of pure white. It had appeared after she’d awoken from the memory overload that came from her otherself, together with the occasional nightmares. Most of those had ended after a few weeks, though a few days ago she’d sat upright in bed, screaming at the top of her lungs.
The memory made Greldo’s smile fade slightly.
“I don’t either,” he answered as she looked at him. “I also don’t sense any Oculithar.”
Dahlia’s eyes gleamed. “This almost guarantees it. I wish we could talk with Irwin about it, have him come here to validate, but even without that…”
Greldo nodded in agreement, rolling his eyes as he remembered Dahlia’s otherself appear, confused and still slightly out of it. If she’d stayed there, she could have moved them over one at a time and saved them the long journey of heading back.
It would also have made it so we didn’t learn about this, he thought, slowing the Nocturna, while seamlessly moving it into the shadowrealm. To most people’s eyes, the dark ship would have just vanished from the branch, while to any shadewalker present, a powerful ripple would have passed through the shadowrealm that would have likely shocked them.
Greldo could have moved the Nocturna into his shadow pocket, but that would have meant going down by himself, and then the others couldn’t have come. So, instead, he flew deeper into the shadowrealm than he knew most regular shadewalkers could by themselves while carrying a massive ship along. It felt effortless, as did pulling his shadowrealm sliver with him.
I really can’t wait to see how Lysbeth will react, he thought as he sensed the dense chunk ahead in the otherwise absolute darkness.
It took a few minutes for a soft purplish glow to appear ahead.
“I can see it, Captain,” Gloom called from the bow. “It’s a part of a mountain.”
Greldo snorted as he continued down, already clearly sensing perhaps a hundred or so feet wide, twice as high chunk of solidified Shadow Realm. This close, he could also sense the life crawling all over it, including a single, much more powerful thing.
A very small part of a mountain, he thought, as he sensed the details of the chunk of land.
“There’s another crab,” he said, no longer as surprised at how clear he could feel things within the shadow realm. He did want to talk with Irwin, ask if this was how he sensed the normal soulforce. If it was, it was no wonder he always knew where things were so easily.
“I knew it,” Dahlia said, moving beside him. “This is why there are sometimes branches that have no Exit Portal and are still too hot and big. Somehow, the presence of these remains of the ancient Shadow Realm is able to influence the normal world. When we return, we need to go over the maps and find more of these anomalies.”
Greldo nodded as they slowly moved alongside the chunk. He could already feel it move, slowly gravitate towards his shadowrealm.
“I still think you should take this part,” he said, looking to the side.
Dahlia hesitated, then shook her head. “My sliver is still growing from that last chunk. If I pull this in, it might cause problems.
Greldo sniffed. “Would be nice if we could just move some of these chunks along without me absorbing them.”
“We will find more,” Dahlia said. “Besides, eventually my sliver will attach to yours anyway.”
Yes, and we have no idea what that will do, Greldo thought, slightly worried.
A hand was placed on his arm, and he looked up to see Dahlia smiling at him.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to act like those two,” she said, making a slight motion with her head to the far side of the ship where the other two people on his ship were.
Pescliz and Keirniz, the two Slughir that Gloom had saved, were staring into the depths, for a change not staring at him. The two were able to call him Captain, to his utter relief, but that seemed the best to hope for. Each time he had tried to speak to them, they had almost huddled on the ground to grovel, to his utter dismay.
Greldo grunted. “You better not.”
He moved his shadowrealm sliver near the chunk, and a few moments later, it was pulled inside, floating down in one of the empty areas. As soon as it appeared, Greldo felt everything grow slightly clearer around him, his sense of his own shadowrealm like a map in his mind. The crab that had been hiding in a cave at the tip stuck out its front end, and Greldo sensed the giant one sitting at the center of his hotchpotch of chunks, sending a ripple through the soulforce that saturated everything.
The smaller crab, nearly identical to the others, pushed itself out of the cave and either swam or flew, Greldo wasn’t sure what to call it yet, towards the second part of his central island. By now, he’d gathered seven Crabs, though none as big as the first, and although the increase in his strength, he’d not felt anything like the built-up that had accompanied the first.
“Got it, let's head back up,” he said, turning the helm, which was technically unnecessary, as within the shadowrealm he used his own abilities to move the ship.
A few hours later, they were flying away from the branch and back into the infinite corridors. Dahlia stood behind the helm, while Greldo examined the maps. Like many of the ships changed and improved by Rindiri’s shipwrights, there was a small cabin behind the helm area, its walls covered in runes able to display different maps—a luxury that very few ships had.
“I think we are going to move along here,” Greldo said, tracing a thin branch towards the bottom right of the map. “It should bring us near this place-” he tapped a small icon that indicated a large harbor. “Last we heard, it was still defending itself from the small chained fleets that came here.”
“It also means we can finally be around some people and find a proper diner,” Dahlia said, sounding relieved. “We have been eating those rations for way too long.”
“Definitely,” Greldo said as he glanced at a map they had kept up on the other wall. It showed the border of the Langost Branch, centered on the area where he’d dumped the enormous tentacle and the host of Shadow Oculithar.
I wonder if any of those Guidar forces have tried moving past there yet, he thought.
--
“Lord Sjeeklin, the ship you asked me to keep an eye on has disappeared moments after reaching the Langost Branch.”
Sjeeklin looked up from where he’d been going over some reports, staring at the young Guidar who stood in the door opening.
“I have asked many people to keep track of many things,” he said coldly. “Remind me again which one you are?”
“Ah, my apologies, my Lord! Number forty-three of The Seventy? The one you let Lady Hymjani take to the Langost branch.”
The one to follow Mozarath? Sjeeklin thought as he stared coolly at the other.
“Details?” he asked, holding back an angry growl, as the youngling kept quiet.
“Ah, the runes sent a signal that matches the Oculithar infestation that has been hampering more of our fleet moments before the signal vanished. From the strength, it can be reasoned that there was a large number of older Oculithar there.”
Sjeeklin leaned back, his mind too preoccupied with hundreds of more important things for him to fully focus. Still, Mozarath was important, and if he could capture that ancient fool…
It’s not worth the effort right now, he thought, knowing that if he could break through the distant other side of the Central World’s defense, he could finally get a foothold in what those locals called The Tangled Core. So far, every effort of theirs had been rebuffed, the opposition far stronger than he had accounted for.
“It’s likely that they found something to latch onto and are currently consuming it,” he said, focusing back on his papers as his mind began pondering how to arrange the fleets. “Put up a notice that no fleets are to use that passage into the Langost Branch for now. Also, send a scout in three months to see if they have left. If they haven’t, try again three months later and continue until the passage is open. Also, did Hymjani die?”
“It seems so, my lord, though there are some oddities with the runic signals we got moments before they vanished.”
“Oddities? What oddities?”
The young Guidar took a step back, his soulforce shivering, and Sjeeklin railed in his own pressure before he crushed the young one.
It took a few moments for the other to regain himself, and when he spoke, his voice was raw and ragged.
“Her mental runes showed potential incursion, Lord Sjeeklin. It lasted for only a fraction of a second, then her life-anchor runes showed her dead. It is likely nothing…”
The latter came out hesitantly, and Sjeeklin just waved him away.
Nothing, or Mozarath’s doing, he thought, wondering if the ancient and dangerous being had actually already been there.
If he did, it's too dangerous now, he decided.
He pressed a rune on his desk.
“Lord Sjeeklin?”
“Any fleets or ships still moving to the Langost Branch are to be redirected to adjacent branches and to block any of the Branch Corridors. Anything moving through from the Langost Branch is to be attacked. This includes Guidar.”
There was a moment of quiet before the voice came again. “Yes, Lord Sjeeklin.”
Sjeeklin nodded, pressed another rune, and for a moment stared at the information arranged before him.
“If you think you can bait me into following him at all costs, Jieldinis, you are a fool,” he muttered before shoving the thoughts of the other two to the back of his mind.
“Now, let's see why this Sickedor Branch is not yet overtaken,” he muttered as he stared at a crystal tablet that showed information on a minor branch called Dohar. A name stood below it.
Terlo… why does that name seem so familiar, Sjeeklin pondered.
--
The tiny being had grown tremendously over the last few months, meaning that it had gone from hunting the smallest fish to now aiming for the larger ones and even some of the snakes that had been a danger before. Its body had also changed even more, and as it sat in the cave it had claimed on the edge of one of the newer additions to the strangely expanding world it inhabited, it opened two of its eyes to examine the long tentacles that it used to hunt. The purple hue had grown stronger, and narrow bands of brilliant purple covered the back of his main tentacles.
Looking at them caused an emotion that it had learned was joy, but also some worry. The bands had made it harder to sneak up on prey. A partial solution had become to hide in the crevices near or even in the murky swamps, but the long, scaled ones were still far too big and dangerous. It had encountered one a few days prior, and the wounds on one of its main tentacles were now fully healed.
It glanced at one of the massive corpses swarming with life that lay partially in the swamp. It barely recalled the time it had been like those, memories having become fainter as had the odd promises of knowledge that had haunted its life back then. Instead, it learned things by trying.
Perhaps it was time to try and feed on one of the corpses again?
As it pondered it, a prod came from the ancient shelled one, and it perked up.
‘Little Tentacle, you shouldn’t eat the dissonant ones yet. You are close to evolving, but if you consume them now, all your hard work may be undone.’
Hard work?
The one who’d just been named Little Tentacle didn’t know exactly what to think of either the name or the imagery and words that had just been sent its way. It faintly understood what they meant, especially the mental imagery that was added to the words.
‘Don’t worry, you will learn,’ the ancient shelled one sent, a wave of hilarity added. ‘Soon you will be able to communicate with the younglings.’
Little Tentacle saw a large fish encroach on its cave and moved forward, immediately interested in only one thing. Food.
It barely noticed the presence of the ancient shell leave, nor that it hovered nearby and observed. All of its focus was on the fish.
--
Gloom stopped at the tip of the new addition to Lord Greldo’s domain. It had clearly been a chunk of mountain long ago, as he had found a few shrubs that he’d remembered seeing ages ago.
A few more and the draw will have increased to bring in larger things, he thought, sensing the pull of the shadow sliver. As soon as the bigger creatures would find it, the pressure would increase, creating a chain reaction.
Taking a deep breath, he looked around, squinting to hide the empty, void-like shadowrealm beyond it from his vision. For a moment, he could think himself back into the world that only remained in his memories- a beautiful, vibrant world of purple hues and shadows. One bustling with life in all directions.
A flickering of bright purple made him focus on a long, squid-like being that shot after one of the larger fish. It managed to overtake it and wrap its tentacle around it. The fish didn’t stop, and for a moment the two barrelled through the higher vegetation that floated above the swamp. Then a tentacle clamped around the fins, preventing the fish from changing course, and it slammed into a rocky outcrop. A chaotic flailing later, the fish stopped moving and was drawn towards a muddy cave.
It has grown, Gloom thought, watching the glowing purple lines on the tentacles pulse as the squid began eating the fish.
It had been the size of his hand before, and now it was longer than his arm. It also didn’t look like a Scathfada anymore. It had two types of tentacles now, two that were thicker and longer, and six thinner, shorter ones. Multiple eyes sat on the base of the tentacles, and as he watched, two eyelids flickered open to show the purplish-red eyes of slitted orbs that hid behind.
I wonder what that thing is, Gloom thought before turning and walking back to the mansion. His mind moved to the two women who were still causing Lord Greldo headaches.
Why can’t they just stop dropping to the ground every time he looks at them?
--
“I finally got one,” Dahlia said as she appeared next to where Greldo was navigating the Nocturna through the shadowrealm.
He looked up with interest.
“The shadow clone card?”
“Yes. The only thing is that it’s not like mine and more like what Coal has, but that might be for the best,” Dahlia said as she walked forward, holding up a card. “I tried a dozen more times, but it just kept giving me the same type of clone, so either shadow cards and clone cards always get something like this, or I am still missing something.”
“So, that means I won’t be able to be in two places at the same time, just like all of you?” Greldo asked, both happy and sad about that in equal measures.
“No, but this might be better,” Dahlia said, smiling as she looked at the ruby-ranked card in his hand. “That one will allow you to create up to six shadow clones now, though I bet you will get more when it becomes part of your next heartcard and soulcard. The thing is, you can move your entire mind in one and leave it somewhere. While you aren’t using them, the explanation text says it should just remain dormant, not needing any food or water, and will persist as long as it's within the shadows.”
“Any range limit?” Greldo asked, his interest growing as he imagined what he could do with a card like that.
“Probably, but we would have to wait for Ambraz to check it,” Dahlia said, which drew an annoyed snort from Juul’rish.
“I’m telling you, it doesn’t matter that he is more sensitive than I am. He has barely any knowledge about shadow cards, so there’s no way he will see more than me.”
“Calm down, Juul,” Dahlia said, smiling at the Ganvil before turning to Greldo. “I think it's time for you to decide the direction you want. Either use the clone card that Irwin left you, or use this one.”
Greldo stared at her, then rubbed his chin.
“Why not both?” he said. “Irwin has his aura clones, a true clone, and that soulclone thing. If I slot both, perhaps one of you can make some very good when you make me my heartcard?”
Dahlia stared at him, then sighed.
“I forgot about that. You are right, as long as the final card in the heartcard becomes shadow-typed, it doesn’t really matter. That said, I don’t know if I can create that heartcard. As much as I have improved, and am confident in my ability to make shadow-typed cardseeds now, I have also learned my limits. What Irwin can do with heartcards is beyond normal.”
Greldo nodded slowly.
“Then I’ll slot both so I can experiment with them. If it goes wrong, I can always remove one. Besides, I have been sitting empty-handed for way too long now. Seeing I can now have three more soulcards instead of one, I feel it's time to start slotting my new one.”
“Yes, because it's normal to have all the cards you need and an easy way to fill your soullake,” Dahlia muttered before smiling at him. “I suggest you slot the shadow clone first. That way, you can perhaps choose a shadow-type when you slot the other clone card beside it. Let me take over.”
Greldo grinned as he let her take the helm while he stared at his empty hands. He’d almost gotten used to them being like that, but as he held the shadow-clone card over it, he couldn’t help but feel his excitement grow.
A question from Coal made him grin as he let the card sink slowly into his hand.
Yes, I’ll be more like you. Just remember that I have a limit of six clones, Greldo replied
Coal snorted, just as Greldo felt an oddly itching sensation spread from his entire body. It increased rapidly, and then it felt like something split from him. He had enough time to let out a curse, then he felt himself drop.
Should have lain down, he thought as he fell unconscious.